The departure from the Irish Stock Exchange of Jefferson Smurfit Group now looks almost certain. Since it was first listed in Dublin in 1964, Smurfit has grown into one of the world's largest paper groups by specialising in the less than glamorous commodity that is corrugated boxes.
Bar a rival offer materialising, the company's shareholders are expected to accept the €3.7 billion bid tabled on Monday by US private equity firm, Madison Dearborn Partners. Investors may grumble about the €3.26 per share being offered, but they are likely to accept it. After all, they have been putting pressure on the company's management to do something about its underperforming share price for years.
In recent times, Smurfit has been unable to achieve the sort of ratings that should be accorded to a company of its stature. Investors have lost faith and much of the blame has been directed at Dr Smurfit, the chairman and chief executive. Companies in this situation represent the sort of opportunity that the likes of Madison Dearborn prey on. They can be expected to be ruthless in extracting a return from their latest acquisition although dismemberment of the company has been ruled out in the short term.
Smurfit's independent directors have gone to considerable efforts to validate their actions. The price offered by Madison Dearborn is superior to that which would be achieved - in the judgment of Smurfit's independent directors - by any other option including a merger with another paper company. The 16,000 Smurfit shareholders' best hope of a higher price must rest with the emergence of a rival bidder, although this remains only a possibility.
Either way, Smurfit is expected to exit the Irish Stock market in the autumn. It will be a sad day. Along with the two banks and CRH, Smurfit is one of the bell-wether stocks of the Irish market. The company's progress is also a reflection of how Ireland has developed and prospered over the last thirty years.
Smurfit has long ceased to be an Irish-owned firm with over 55 per cent of the company now owned by institutional investors in the US and most of its business now done abroad. But it has remained very much an Irish company and a family business to boot. Dr Smurfit will remain as chairman under the new owners, but for the first time, the role of chief executive will go to an outsider - Mr Gary McGann. Together with other executives, the two men will have a 10 per cent stake in the company. This should ensure that Smurfit retains its Irish identity for the time being.